qeltar

What scientific testing did you have in mind? I honestly can't even figure out what you are on about here. Are you suggesting the use of dragon claws as a regular weapon (not just for its spec) instead of a whip or GS? Or what?

bladewing: You know what you can do with your "checks". I'll not waste time arguing with someone who behaves as you have here. I stand by my record for doing scientific testing. Everyone can choose to believe what they wish.

I own one of the oldest SGSes in the game. Bought it three days after GWD came out, when few players recognized its potential. I've used it for so many things I couldn't even list them all; I have no need to justify its utility. SGS provides large advantages in routine combat by saving good and prayer, allowing you to use cheaper food and beasts of burden instead of healing familiars. Very useful at Barrows, where it can replace prayer pot doses. Has all the advantage of all godswords, including crush mode, high strength, ability to cut through high defence, and +8 to prayer. Provides a "cushion" on Slayer tasks if you run a bit low on health and don't want to bank. Handy at the giant mole. Useful in countless other ways. Bandos? Provides a microscopic strength bonus. That's it. I bet you also think berserker rings are way better than warrior rings. ;)

bladewing, your analysis is not terribly convincing. Try actually doing some controlled tests with and without a +4 strength bonus -- I have, and the actual difference is less than the margin of error.

Not particularly, no. I wasn't addressing SGS versus d claws, but SGS versus Bandos armor. I haven't tested d claws directly against other weapons yet. Some of your numbers also seem a bit dubious to me. There is more to the value of a weapon, incidentally, than just raw damage per hour. What the SGS buys is convenience and flexibility.

The SGS is, overall, the single most useful weapon in the game. Not at every place, but in most places. Bandos provides a strength bonus that makes almost no difference in practice. You decide.

You sound like children who need a new toy every week or they think they have "nothing to do". I'm sure you can guess what I tell my kids when they say that.

Unfortunately, the items are unbalanced even taking speed into account. Even in a place like Kuradal's Dungeon where fast weapons should have the advantage, crossbows are usually better. And cheaper, too.

Laura, you may find this an interesting read. I am in the process of redoing the test based on the change to life points, which may favor the strength bonus over the accuracy bonus.

Broad bolts. Not even close. Jagex needs to rebalance the ranging skill because bolts overpower nearly everything else right now, even cheap ones.

Yes, more data would certainly be better. Unfortunately there's only so much time I can devote to a particular test. Even what I did there, once all was said and done and I wrote it up and everything was a full day's work. It was over 300 kills. Usually if there's a noticeable trend it will show up in that amount of data. Based on what I saw there, I consider it a tossup and the helm of Neitiznot is probably the better choice because of its prayer bonus.

Then the best advice I can give is sign up for a month to month membership, check it out for free (well, a penny) for a month and decide then. But yes, the site is all about the notion of "time is money". The guides are designed to save you time, and to dynamically answer questions like "what is the cheapest way to train Herblore" that are asked here on a daily basis. I also have an investing blog where I give tips on undervalued and overvalued items; I have a knack for this -- like suggesting players buy Sara brews the day before Nomad's Requiem came out, or recommending the purchase of bolt racks right before they surged -- and a lot of players find that alone is worth the price of admission. ;)

I did this exact test a few weeks ago. Results were inconclusive.

I don't think I'd bother with a macaw at something like abyssals. Just not that many herbs to make it worthwhile; I prefer a beast of burden. I rarely use healing familiars, because in most cases you are better off using a beast of burden.

I'm not really sure if you even want me to reply here. It would be self-serving to just spew forth a sales pitch, and I'm not going to do that. But if you want me to explain the concept behind the site (and why I have a pay membership side) or to answer any particular questions, let me know.

Godswords are better than the whip on monsters with high defence, or those where the average life points is low enough that you get significantly more one-hit kills with one than with a whip. I'll be testing this extensively at some point.

The best familiar for foraging (value wise) is the magpie. For fighting good herb droppers, the macaw is a must. It makes a HUGE difference: you get about 23% of herbs over ranarr without one, 35% with. That's nearly 50% more high herbs.

Ah, you decided to stay on the mat. Good decision.

This analogy is so ridiculous that I scarcely even know what to do with it. You're trying to make fun of my position but apparently aren't capable of even understanding it. I don't support crashing, so I wouldn't be in that situation. The "three days in a row" thing is crap as well, but you knew that. I'll try again using small words. My position is that if you come to a spot and someone is already there, that if possible you should try another spot or a different world. It has nothing to do with "rights" and "deserving" and everything to do with simple courtesy and treating others as you would like to be treated. I realize this is too complex a concept for some people. And then he sprouts wings, and flaps around the restaurant humming the theme from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". Gotcha. Cry moar son. Thanks, that's an excellent example of what I was referring to.

Actually, they aren't strawman arguments at all. They're entirely valid analogies, which is why you're engaging in a lot of huffing and puffing rather than addressing them. Several of those examples are of behavior that is frowned upon but that occurs because of an "anything goes, this is the Internet" type attitude. As soon as you use the word "unfair", you are effectively admitting that ethics *is* a consideration on the Internet, and in games. Because if it isn't, if anything goes, who cares about fairness? As for the game's rules, that too is irrelevant to the matter of ethical behavior. Ethics and the law are often diametrically opposed, and decent people have to make choices to do what's right, not just to mindlessly follow the rules. I'd give an obvious example but don't want to Godwin the thread. :P Jagex changes the rules all the time. Are you saying they are the sole arbiters of appropriate behavior towards others? A couple of years ago they legalized luring into the Wild for a month, did that make it right? If you decide what's right based on others' rules, you have my sympathies, as letting others dictate your ethics is a poor way to live. In cases where they are truly limited, then crashing is acceptable. But many examples exist where crashing occurs out of laziness or spite, and that's not acceptable. At least, if you don't want to be an asshat. Don't care. That's a laughably poor analogy. The person who takes the last item on the shelf is analagous to the one who is already in a spot. The person who comes up afterwards is the crasher. So you've got that rather backwards. My position is that the person who was there first and got the last item on the shelf gets to keep it; if I want it, I need to ask the guy for it, and if he says no, try another store. Your position is that if there's only one item on the shelf and the other guy got there first, it's perfectly fine for you to take it by force if you are strong enough to rip it out of his hands and fast enough to run away before the security guards show up. Of course you could never get away with this in real life, but you can in a game, where people can act like obnoxious jerks with no consequence. Doesn't change the fact that they are obnoxious jerks. I wonder if people like you realize just how much you reveal about your own character in discussions like these. I hope for your sake that you're anonymous, because I don't think for a minute that the attitude you express here wouldn't carry forward to real life situations.

The key to keeping your sanity in this game is to remember that you do not have to engage in conversation with anyone whom you do not wish to. If you encounter someone behaving like a jerk, add them to your ignore list -- problem solved. It really is that simple.

This isn't about competition. It's about treating others in a reasonable manner. There are naturally competitive areas of the game, sure. But there are still ways to treat others reasonably, rather than being an asshat and pretending it's okay because you care only about yourself. The "it's a video game" argument doesn't wash. Or are you going to state here and now that you have no problem with RWT, macroing, hacking, account trading, encouraging rule breaking? After all, it's "just a game".

This is both simplistic and stupid. Ethical behavior (not morality -- there is a difference) is what enables human beings to coexist. There's a reason why every society in history has had an ethical code; without it, anarchy ensues. It's a simple matter of decency and fairness -- treating others as you would want to be treated. As someone else said, it's not about what you *can* do, it's about what you *should* do. If someone wants to be selfish, then fine, just recognize what you are doing and why. And don't complain when it gets done to you. Oh, and take heart that you use the identical lame rationalizations used by mercher pyramid schemes, gold farmers, account traders, botters and hackers. They use the exact same "arguments" to justify *their* unethical behavior. It's only a matter of degree.

Veracs armor, whip, DFS with Turmoil is best.

120 an hour for rocktail is a bit optimistic. I prefer world 2 for the LRC... lots of people means less chance of being targeted.